National Political News

WASHINGTON, Pa. – When Sarah Palin made her first trip to western Pennsylvania as GOP presidential candidate John McCain's fresh-faced running mate, the Arizona senator warned locals that she "doesn't let anyone tell her to sit down."

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The Pakistani government has some advice the Obama administration may not want to hear as it contemplates sending additional U.S. troops to neighboring Afghanistan: Negotiate with Taliban leaders and restrain India.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Emanuel Cleaver wanted people to stop complaining for a day and count their blessings.

Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Thursday ordered the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to quit interfering with health care benefits for federal judicial employees just because they are married to a person of the same sex.

America's once clear dominance in space is eroding as other nations, including China, Iran and North Korea, step up their activities, a panel of experts told the House subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics on Thursday.

WASHINGTON – The Senate on Thursday began what promises to be a bitter, lengthy battle over the future of health care in America, and taxes, abortion, affordability and federal deficits emerged as key flashpoints.

WASHINGTON – Senate Democratic leaders Wednesday unveiled a sweeping $849 billion plan to overhaul the nation's health care system, a proposal likely to trigger an epic Senate battle over how consumers will buy and maintain coverage.

A judge ruled Wednesday an assistant federal public defender's spouse must be compensated for health care benefits withheld since July 2008 because the couple are gay.

SEOUL, South Korea - President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he was still weeks away from deciding how many more U.S. troops to send to Afghanistan and that he would like to fire officials who had leaked details of his deliberations to the news media.

Sacramento real estate developer and philanthropist Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis appears headed for confirmation as the next ambassador to the Republic of Hungary after winning strong backing from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON – The federal Web site that tracks spending from the Obama administration's $787 billion economic stimulus program reports that the program has created thousands of jobs in congressional districts that don't exist.

BEIJING – President Barack Obama today wraps up a three-day visit to China that's left him keenly aware of the limits of American influence over this economic powerhouse on issues from currency exchange rates to human rights.

Steve Gándola, president and chief executive officer of the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, wants to count all Latinos in the 2010 census, including millions of noncitizens.

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to prosecute confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged underlings in civilian courts ignited a debate Friday about whether the trial would invite new attacks on New York and if the proceeding would be stymied by legal wrangling over the defendants' rights.

WASHINGTON - In a shake-up, White House counsel Greg Craig abruptly announced his resignation Friday, just weeks after saying he had no plans to leave.

The federal government has moved to seize a Carmichael mosque and seven other properties from Texas to New York owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization that federal prosecutors allege is a front for the Iranian government.

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration's internal debate over Afghan policy has escalated into a battle of media leaks that's straining relations between officials who are seeking a major troop increase and those who want a more limited approach and a greater focus on domestic priorities.

WASHINGTON – Reps. Doris Matsui and Dan Lungren are polar opposites on Capitol Hill, but they agree on one point: House approval of a trillion-dollar health care overhaul marked a victory for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.

Race to the Top, the nation's largest competition for school grants, quieted some critics by adding flexibility to final rules released by the Obama administration this week – but the fighting is far from over in California.

A California bank that received $298.7 million in federal bank bailout money last year has been seized and closed by state regulators.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's decision to close the Guantánamo Bay military prison by Jan. 22 was followed by a series of mistakes and missteps by his administration that will delay the prison's closure for months, according to a report from a policy organization with close ties to the White House.

The decades-long battle over abortion has emerged as a mini-drama in the larger debate on a health care overhaul, and Central Valley lawmakers are divided.

WASHINGTON – Some of the nation's most esteemed scientists will review recent environmental decisions curtailing California irrigation water deliveries, officials affirmed Tuesday.

A key Senate committee chairman unveiled a sweeping 1,136- page bill Tuesday that, if enacted, would mandate the most comprehensive overhaul of financial regulation since the Great Depression.

WASHINGTON – Republicans Monday gained new hope that they could influence health care deliberations – influence that's so far eluded them – as the debate moves to the Senate, where the rules and the politics can work to their advantage.

WASHINGTON – Abortion opponents in the Senate are seeking tough restrictions in the health care overhaul bill, a move that could roil a shaky Democratic effort to pass President Barack Obama's signature issue by year's end.

Leslie Lohse, leader of a small band of Indians in Tehama County, recently found herself speaking directly to President Barack Obama – one chief of state to another.

WASHINGTON – As bad as Friday's jobs report was, showing October's unemployment rate jumping sharply to 10.2 percent, the outlook is likely to worsen for American workers well into next year.

WASHINGTON – The killings of 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas – allegedly by an Army psychiatrist who also was a Muslim – set off a rancorous debate Friday that once again spotlighted the fear among Muslims in America that they would be collectively found guilty for the actions of one man.

IRVINE – Goldman Sachs was one of the last Wall Street giants to enter the subprime lending world, but when it did, it quickly climbed into bed with profligate, highflying firms – companies such as New Century Financial Corp.

WASHINGTON – Hiring a federal judge all but takes an act of Congress, but Congress hasn't been acting much lately.

When California wildfires ruined their jewelry business, Tony Becker and his wife fell months behind on their mortgage payments and experienced firsthand the perils of subprime mortgages.

In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages but never told the buyers that it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – After three days of encounters with U.S.-bashing Pakistanis – who rejected her contention the United States and Pakistan face a common enemy – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday "we're not getting through."

WASHINGTON – The $787 billion stimulus bill approved by Congress earlier this year has saved or created more than 640,000 jobs, including more than 110,000 in California, the White House said Friday.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday pressed her one-woman blitz on Pakistani public opinion, bluntly challenging the country to defend its territory from an onslaught by religious extremists and asking why Pakistan's powerful military was unable to find Saudi-born terrorist Osama bin Laden.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed the first major piece of federal gay rights legislation, a milestone that activists compared to the passage of 1960s civil rights legislation empowering blacks.

Moderate Democratic senators remained reluctant Tuesday – and in one case, defiant – about backing the government-run public option health care plan that party leaders are offering as a compromise, making it highly uncertain whether the plan can become law.

The federal government's preparedness for the H1N1 – or swine flu– pandemic, which has claimed more than 1,000 lives nationwide, was inadequate and incomplete, a congressional subcommittee said Tuesday.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District on Tuesday scored $127.5 million in federal stimulus funds to install "smart meters" in every home and business in its territory – the first step in giving local consumers real-time, online information about their energy use.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday called on Congress to pass a health care overhaul that would require all Americans to carry insurance, but he warned that California will get stuck with a bill of more than $1 billion a year for expanding Medicaid if the federal government doesn't provide more money to the states.

A year ago, Robin and Robb Wirthlin went to Riverside Wesleyan Church in Sacramento to warn Californians what they feared might happen if gay marriage remained legal in the state.

WASHINGTON – Iran hedged Friday on accepting a deal that would transfer most of its low-enriched uranium out of the country to be converted for peaceful uses, saying it wants more time to study the deal and suggesting that it prefers a different approach.